Opinion | Features

Why is it that agencies or brands with momentum seem to be more successful? Christopher Ott explains the Matthew Effect.
When an ad achieves success at one award show it generally goes on to receive more success at other shows. As though its fame feeds its future success, ad infinitum. There’s an unfair advantage, right? The same unfair advantage big brands enjoy over small ones.
It's called the Mathew Effect - named after a verse in the Matthew Gospel, which goes: "For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance".

With journalists being blamed for breaching suppression orders on some high profile trials Mark Pearson of Griffith University asks if the way the laws currently work are really suitable for the internet age.
It is somewhat alarming when a media law academic finds himself on the wrong side of a media law. But that is exactly what happened to me when I discovered the new edition of our textbook was in breach of a suppression order on the name of Adrian Bayley – the man who murdered Jill Meagher.

Newcomers can struggle to adjust to the fast-paced world of media agencies. Here Marco Del Castillo talks about the challenges he has faced in his first year at MEC.
I’m days away from rounding out my rookie season in this industry and it has been a heck of a ride. A naïve student in the field of psychology and marketing, I have found myself in the thick of a fast-paced world filled with interesting people, a ridiculous amount of jargon and litres of beer, wine and champagne to rival the downpour of the 2011 QLD floods.

Dean Dacko is the head of marketing for Malaysia Airlines, a company that has experienced more upheaval in the last 12 months than perhaps any local brand in history.
In this expansive interview with Robin Hicks at the Festival of Media Asia, the Canadian talks about how the twin air disasters of MH370 and MH17 have changed the airline's approach to communications, how these traumatic events affected him personally, and the plan to rebuild one of Malaysia's most revered national brands.
Dean, you've been with Malaysia Airlines for just over two and half years. The last 12 months must have been particularly challenging?

Australian businesses constantly bemoan the brain drain and loss of talent overseas, but Mumbrella editor Alex Hayes asks what are we doing about promoting the country as a destination for the best creative and digital minds in the world to come and live?
The town of Denton in Texas has 125,000 souls, two universities, and its main employer at the moment is truck builder Peterbilt. However, it is desperately trying to bolster the contribution of creative and digital types to its economy as it looks to the future.
I learned all of this whilst enjoying a coffee with the city's mayor, as could any of the 32,000 plus digital and creative and digital entrepreneurs that passed the stall at SXSW Interactive's trade show.
Inspired I went wondering the enormous trade hall for Australia's version - but there wasn't one to be found.

In this cross-posting from The Conversation Ben Goldsmith of the Queensland University of Technology looks at why Rupert Murdoch voiced his displeasure at planned media reforms despite standing to gain.
Earlier this month, reports suggested that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is preparing to take a media reform package to cabinet. The Weekend Australian called it a “surprise move” and reported that media executives were “shocked”.

The official arrival of Netflix in Australia today fires the starting gun on what could be one of the biggest marketing wars this year. Miranda Ward runs the ruler over the new local offering and how it measures up the its US counterpart, as well as local players Stan and Presto.
Australians have never had so many options as to how they consume content - but for people looking to dip their toes in the video streaming waters the options are many and dazzling with many shows carried by more than one service, and all having different exclusive content.
I’ve been using the US version of Netflix for the last month, while I’ve also experimented with Stan and Presto. But which will consumers choose?

Last November Nic Christensen looked at how the new streaming services were just part of a larger war between the telcos. With today's launch of Netflix locally we revisit the piece - and in a postscript look at how it has played out so far.
Brace yourself, a media winter is coming.
But it's not the impending streaming war between Presto, Netflix and newly minted Stan that you've been hearing so much about that will redefine the Australian media landscape, but rather what sides the various media companies fall on.

With over 1,000 sessions at SXSW Interactive this year there was a lot of competition for attention. Here Douglas Nicol outlines the three speakers he got the most from at this year's event.
You get wonderfully judgmental about each presenter pretty quickly at SXSW, you sort of know if the speaker is going to be good within 10 minutes, and if they're a dud you quickly switch to another concurrent session. But if you've done your homework you strike gold most days.
Here are 3 of the people who I found pretty damn interesting and inspiring:

Former news.com.au night editor Will Colvin has written an article for Sneaky magazine celebrating how little work he used to get away with on the News Corp-owned site. Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes argues that by staying in the job, Colvin denied it to somebody else who needed it more.
It seems to be journo confession month.

Following the death of former prime minister Malcolm Fraser and comments that he under achieved while in government Burson-Marsteller CEO Christine Jones offers some pointers on how politicians could communicate more effectively in an effort to be remembered in a more positive light once out of office.
Like many people, I was saddened to hear the news that Malcolm Fraser passed away overnight. Since the news was announced a few hours ago, tributes have flowed in from all corners of our country and around the world. It’s a fitting acknowledgement of his service to Australia and Australians over many decades.

Data retention has been in the headlines in recent week but do the proposed amendments go far enough in protecting the media asks Angela Daly, Swinburne University of Technology and Adam Molnar, Deakin University in this cross post from The Conversation.
The House of Representatives has finally passed the third tranche of national security legislation, concerning the mandatory retention of all Australians' data when they use telecommunications services.
In the wake of concerns about how such data retention could impact upon the media, the government and ALP adopted amendments to the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014.
These amendments entail that law enforcement agencies aside from ASIO wanting to access journalists' data to discover their sources would first have to seek a warrant.

Amid ongoing reports of the death of print, Carat's Christine McKinnon looks at some possible future revenue streams for magazine publishers.
Two weeks ago I walked into a news agency to retrieve my subscriber copy of the News Corp Disney Frozen book and CD.
As I walked in something seemed out of place. The stationery was along the walls as it always had been; the middle aisle, however, was full of extracurricular study books for primary school students. I wandered over to the counter and asked nervously “where are your magazines?”
The owner smiled, and yes, with pity said: "we don’t sell magazines anymore…no one bought them – we had too many returns - we make more money out of text books.”
There was not a single magazine to be seen - not even a Woman’s Weekly or a Delicious. It was a Twilight Zone moment, a one way moment. There was no going back. "We don’t sell magazines anymore.”
It was over.

Kristy Richards, and Daniel Bluzer-Fry present a synopsis of their talk at SXSW looking investigating what effects ‘game changing’ technologies may have on who we are and our relationships and ideals in the future.
Technology and the rapid pace of innovation is having a profound effect upon all of our lives. The positive draw of the benefits of tech is hugely enticing.

Roger Box finds himself wrestling with existential questions after learning about mind clones.One of the reasons to come to SXSW is to get exposure to new ideas, and you hear the phrase "mind blown" a lot around here.
The session that did that for me was from Martine Rothblatt who gave a keynote talking about mind clones – the idea that humans can transcend software and potentially live forever.

The future of outdoor advertising?

A series of announcements made in recent weeks by Australia’s big outdoor ad firms seem to suggest that this country is a leader in digital out-of-home technology.

The reality? Australia is playing catch up. Think this is unfair? Then I’d suggest a trip to Seoul, which offers a glimpse at the future of outdoor.

A fairly typical press release sent out by an Aussie outdoor firm recently trumpeted new technology that allows advertisers to change their messages on the gantry at Melbourne Airport three times a day. This only struck me as interesting because the first advertiser to use it is Samsung, which is spruiking its new Galaxy mobile phone.

Going to Seoul from Sydney is like walking between the sets of Bladerunner and Little House on the Prairie, partly because one of Korea’s biggest outdooradvertisers also makes the kit it and everyone else advertises on, plus a bunch of other stuff, from mobile phones, air conditioners and TVs to houses, hotels and hospitals, which the company generates a quarter of Korea’s GDP from selling.

Soon to launch in Korea – if Samsung’s D’light product showroom is anything to go by – are such wonders as a fridge with beer ads running on it (click here to watch), a coffee table that recharges and sends messages to your phone, personisable pavement and an LED wall that reproduces your face (or an ad) on a hundred different screens.

But what is already part of the Seoul cityscape points to the future of outdoor advertising. Running through the busiest street in Gangnam, Seoul’s most affluent shopping district, is a strip of ‘media poles’ – cyclindrical advertising towers that double as street lights.

Each pole, which cost around US$100,000 to build, was funded by the government but will eventually be paid for by advertising. The poles are made of LED and LCD paneling and display a mix of media art (50%), public service messages (20%) and advertising (30%).

The magic happens at night and at street level, where shoppers can use a digital kiosk to interact with the ads and use features such as Google Maps to navigate around the city.

The functionality of the poles has changed as Korea’s smart phone penetration (the highest in the world) has exploded in the three years since they were built, and the next stage is to ensure the kiosks are compatible with the latest mobile applications.

Kit like this can be justified not only because it pays for itself. But because advertisers demand it (brands in Korea fret that they’ll be seen as backward if they don’t use the latest technology), and a congested city of 25m people with some of the world’s worst traffic jams means volume for advertisers and plenty of dwell time.

A new idea developed in Seoul, which is expected to arrive in Australia some time this year, is the Samsung Mobile PIN, a two-way mirrored glass showroom that the company is using to launch its new Galaxy S3 mobile phone. The showroom, a cross between an experiential marketing hub, an advertising hoarding and an art sculpture, can be dismantled and moved to other cities, hence its name.

Having a client like Samsung is of obvious benefit to the capabilities of its ad agency Cheil Worldwide, which won last year’s media grand prix Cannes for a digital outdoor idea that turned a subway station into a grocery store. Commuters stood waiting for their train were able to scan QR codes of pictures of groceries plastered on station walls by Home Plus, the local version of Tesco.

Woolworth has tried the same idea at bus stops here. The difference in Korea is that when a commuter uses the virtual grocery store, their groceries have arrived by the time they get home. But Woolies never intended bus stops to replace its stores, the retailer simply wanted more people to download its app. Tesco is a challenger brand in Korea, which is why it took a punt on digitising its stores.

As seems to be the way with Asian agencies that win anything, eyebrows were raised about Cheil’s Cannes entry last year – as it was only in test phase. But the award stood, as the virtual store was operational and generating sales. There are now 22 fully functional virtual grocery stores dotted at bus stops and a subway station (bus stops get more reach than subways…) around Seoul, the idea has also spread to Shanghai, Toronto and elsewhere.

The latest retail-meets-digital outdoor idea from Cheil uses tranparent LCD technology – another ploy to distract busy commuters. The agency has high hopes for this entry in Cannes next week.

Called Beyond the window, the technology enables messages and images to be played on a screen in front of the product itself, which is set back into the wall. Starting with Seoul’s bustling National University Station, Beyond the window is to be rolled out across 100 other subway station across the city.

So why isn’t this sort of stuff happening in Australia?

The answer is not just because Seoul has Samsung, or that brands and consumers in Korea have a greater thirst for new technology. But because of the heavy hand of government.

The sticking point is what outdoor ad firms think can make an outdoor ad a lot more effective – movement.

In pedestrianised zones in Australian cities, digital is rapidly taking over. But the spread of digital is snail-paced where outdoor is most prominent – on roadsides. This is because the government fears that digital billboards with moving content will distract drivers.

“Government is risk averse, which is holding back progress for the outdoor ad industry,” says Charmaine Moldrich, CEO of the Outdoor Media Association. “We have been arguing over whether a static roadside ad should change every 15, 30 or 45 seconds – eight seconds is the global standard – never mind have a conversation about digital ads with moving figures or animation,” she says.

But Mark Thewlis, regional president of Clear Channel, known locally as AdShel, sees regulation as an excuse. “Look at the US. It’s just as regulated if not more than Australia, but has the world’s biggest digital outdoor business. Ultimately, progress is about investing and believing in the technology.”

Digital uptake is more likely when technologies such as near field communication are standard in smart phones – and help bridge the gap between the consumer and the billboard. But what is probably more important now, is to make better use of what there is already.

“Outdoor doesn’t need digital to survive,” says Thewlis. “But we’ve got an opportunity to extrend what’s possible. Yes, it’s great to have new toys. But they’re only as powerful as the creative thought behind them.”

Comments

An interesting OOH reflection of your recent visit to Seoul but maybe Australia is not quite as far behind as you might first think. The OOH activity in Korea generally and especially in Seoul has always been way ahead of almost every other international city I know. Their adoption of digital sky signs over the years and more recently digital street based formats is legendary and as you say not surprising being the home of some of the world’s largest display manufacturers.

The comments from Charmaine regarding the current absence of roadside digital displays in Australia, and in particular NSW is accurate. Poorly directed red tape is holding the sector here back but that will change over time as misguided myths are busted and change comes about.

In the mean time Australia is quite well served considering our population size, geographic challenges and the current commitment by Australian media buyers to OOH spend (I think in Korea OOH has traditionally attracted almost 20% of all media spend!).

Move past the roadside issue and there is actually quite a level of digital OOH available and more coming in development pipelines, certainly here at EYE. Interior precincts such as Malls, Airports and Uni common areas have provided us valuable audiences in extremely large numbers, terrific national scale and high value lifestyle segments. The digital networks are in place and the technology constantly being refreshed. These networks have been used widely but still primarily as electronic OOH. The big opportunity that is still to be actualised is the flexibility that digital offers – day parts, week parts, multiple creative execution flexibility for the same campaign etc – you name it but we don’t see adoption of this in campaigns. Maybe occasionally but it should be all the time. It’s not for the sake of making the case but for some reason the opportunity is not resonating in Australia. All thoughts, feedback and input welcome. Why is it so!

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